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Tony C. celebrates his comeback April 14, 1969 ... When the Red Sox were introduced before the home opener, Tony Conigliaro was the 24th person introduced. He had not faced an opposing pitcher at the plate since he was beaned on August 18, 1967. This was the day he thought he would never have, being back on the field at Fenway. He celebrated by knocking in the winning run, with the score tied at 3 to 3 and the bases loaded. It was just a 35 foot single but it was good enough, as the Red Sox beat the Orioles 5 to 3. Ray Culp admitted to throwing a lot of junk all afternoon, and won the game. Culp and Mike Cuellar and pitched well in Baltimore to start the season, but in their encore, neither was very clever. The Baltimore lefty was driven from the box in the fourth inning after giving up 10 hits and three runs. The Red Sox had promised they would go to the opposite field the next time they faced him, and they did that. In the second inning after Russ Gibson had singled and Culp forced him with one out, Reggie Smith hit a fairly hard ball to right-field. It fell behind Frank Robinson for a triple and the Red Sox had a run. In the third inning, Carl Yastrzemski doubled and moved to third on Ken Harrelson's liner to Robinson in right. Yaz got trapped on Tony Conigliaro's grounder to shortstop, but Tony reached second while Yaz was being run down. George Scott then lined a single to center to score Conigliaro. Ray Culp had gone through three hitless innings, but in the fourth he walked Frank Robinson and Boog Powell. Elrod Hendricks lined one into the right-field seats, just past Conigliaro's out-stretched arm and the Orioles tied the game at three each. In the fourth inning Culp doubled to right to open the inning. After Reggie lined to Frank Robinson, Mike Andrews singled to left, to and move Culp over to third. After Ken Harrelson walked to load the bases, Culp scored on Tony Conigliaro's dinky base hit, to give the Sox a 4 to 3 lead. Culp got into trouble in the fifth inning, but good plays by Smith and Scott got him off the hook. With one out Don Buford reached on Russ Gibson's error and Paul Blair singled left-center. Reggie fielded Blair's hit on one hop and threw a long strike to nail Buford at third. Then George Scott made a good play to his left on Frank Robinson's grounder, to end the inning. Rico Petrocelli's double to left and Reggie singled to right produced the fifth Boston run in the fifth inning. In the sixth inning, Boog Powell and Hendricks singled to open, but with one out Dave Johnson accidentally tapped back to the mound and started a doubleplay. When Frank Robinson singled with one out in the eighth, Sparky Lyle came in and hardly looked like the answer, when he walked Powell on four straight pitches. But Merv Rettenmund grounded into a doubleplay and got him out of the jam. |
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